His Inner Demons
by AShipperWithNoLife
Summary: One would not expect someone who died to save a life to end up in Hell. However, Alfred believes he deserves such a fate, despite the fact that he'd committed such a good deed. Are the rumors about the place renowned for bringing misery upon it's inhabitants true though?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Hetalia does not, has not, and will not ever belong to me. Also, I would like to state that this story will have a bit of psychological torture, mentions of horrible deaths, demons (surprise!), depression, and well, those all of the warnings I can think of at the moment. I'll let you know if I come up with anymore.**

 **But don't worry, there will still be fluff despite all of this angst.**

 **Oh, and by the way, Emperor Kumquat helped me revise this summary. It needed a little work, and I'm grateful for their help!**

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As Alfred slowly opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that everything was blurry. However, the mix of orange and brown that he saw was short lived, as his eye lids had lost the motivation for keeping his eyes open. Once he'd returned to a world full of nothing but black, Alfred wanted nothing more than to drift off into the endless void his mind had easily tricked him into thinking that he was in. He was just so tired. There didn't even seem to be anything for him to remember. At least, that was what Alfred assumed when he did try to recall anything. Was he dead? If so, Alfred was sure that he didn't mind death too much. Despite the fact that his body felt as if it was made of nothing but lead, and that his mind was so foggy, the feeling of just letting himself be consumed by the nothingness was quite relaxing.

For what seemed to be an eternity, Alfred allowed his mind to focus on the nothingness while his body slowly regained some strength. Then, he began to grow more alert of his surroundings. He was laying on something solid, yet he was still too out of it to really tell whether that something was soft as a cushion, or hard as a rock. Then, he remembered the fire and smoke he had been exposed to. At first, Alfred thought that he must have been in the hospital. Soon enough, however, he realized that that theory didn't seem to make much sense. It wouldn't explain the orange and brown he saw earlier. Every hospital he'd ever seen had white rooms. Perhaps the fire and smoke he thought he remembered so vividly was just a figment of his imagination, or maybe even a dream. Maybe he was waking up in his own bedroom, and for whatever reason happened to be way to exhausted to want to do so much as move a muscle. He was sure that his bedroom wasn't orange and brown though. Alfred didn't dwell on that. He couldn't think of anywhere else he could be, so he just put it off as him somehow forgetting was color his bedroom was.

Time passed by, and Alfred eventually realized that what he was laying on was not a bed, but instead felt like a giant rock with some pebbles scattered around it. However, the fact that pebbles were digging into his skin was not the most important thing in the world to him. What he wanted to know was how he ended up in such a strange place. Therefore, Alfred tried to search his memory once more in order to see if he could recall anything other than the fire and smoke.

There had been a fire at the apartment he was living in. Of course, the moment he realized that there was a fire, he'd tried to make sure that everyone was able to escape the building safely, and he himself had managed to escape without inhaling any smoke. However, before the fire fighters had arrived, he realized that his roommate was not outside. He didn't know where his roommate was when the fire happened, but he knew for sure that he was still in the building. Alfred was aware of the fact that it would be incredibly stupid to go back into the building and try to save his roommate, and many people had tried holding him back and yelling at him in an attempt to make him stay outside, but he'd managed to head into the building despite their efforts anyways.

He did end up finding his roommate in the building, and Alfred was able to bring him near the entrance so that he would be able go outside to safety. Unfortunately for him, however, his rush to make sure that his his roommate was alright must have prevented him from doing a proper job of keeping the smoke out of his lungs, as once he neared the only accessible entrance left, he began to feel light headed, and extremely weak. He remembered collapsing on the floor and watching as the fire spread to block his only way out. Then, before he entered the world of nothingness, he remembered being in pain. Lots and lots of pain.

 _So, I really am dead?,_ Alfred thought, as he realized that he must have ended up being burnt alive. The thought caused him to shudder, and it really didn't help that the memory of him being burnt alive kept playing in his head over and over again. He appreciated the fact that his roommate was alright when he tried to save him, but the cost for doing so was absolutely traumatizing. Then, a morbid thought came to him, _Maybe I deserved to die like that._

Despite the fear that was slowly building up within his mind, Alfred opened his eyes when he realized that he seemed to be strong enough to move. He needed to know where he was, and what was going on. After all, if that fire incident wasn't just some terrible nightmare, then this place he was in now was the afterlife he was going to have to live in.

Much to Alfred's adversity, however, he couldn't help but become even more panicked when he realized that the place he was in looked oddly similar to what people would describe as Hell. The sky was orange, and the ground was brown and rocky. Where he was looking, he didn't really see anyone being tortured, or any living creature at all for that matter. In fact, the place seemed to look quite deserted. Despite this, however, the only thing that Alfred could think of his situation at that moment was, _I knew that if this place was real, I'd end up here. After what I did..._

Then, Alfred flinched when he felt something akin to a dog's wet nose touch his arm. Sure enough, when he whipped his head around in order to see what was touching him, he saw what he assumed to be a golden retriever. Maybe a dog happily panting and wagging it's tail while staring at him wouldn't have been considered the most intimidating thing in the world; if it wasn't for the fact that the dog literally had empty eye sockets. That probably wasn't even the worst thing Alfred would have expected to find in Hell, but the sight of the creature still scared him to no end. He screamed as soon as he noticed this feature of the dog, and began to try and back away from the dog in his weak state as quickly as he could. Perhaps the dog did smell his fear, but that still didn't stop it from trying to be a friendly pooch, as the dog only moved closer to him with a playful trot. Of course, it was easy for the dog to catch up to him, since Alfred was still on the ground, so he tried to pick up the pace in which he backed away.

Alfred knew that in any other situation, a dog wouldn't have frightened him so much. Even if the dog did look horrifying, for well, what could've possibly been the cutest puppy in the world if it had eyes, it didn't seem as if it wanted to hurt Alfred. Unfortunately, Alfred was completely unable to understand that. What could someone expect though? Not only had he been burnt alive, but he ended up in Hell. Alfred wasn't even sure how things were going to turn out for him at that moment.

When he set one of his hands down in order to continue dragging himself away from the dog, he felt his gut drop when he realized that there was nothing to set his hand on. It was then that Alfred realized that he must have been on some sort of ledge. An unpleasant chill began to creep throughout Alfred's skin as he tried to keep his balance. The dog immediately stopped wagging it's tail, and began to whimper as it prepared to lunge forward in an attempt to grab Alfred's shirt. However, before the dog could do anything, something flew by and scooped Alfred up off of the ground.

After a few moments of shock, the first thing Alfred realized was that there were two giant, light grey wings flapping; attached to whatever was holding him (judging by how he was being held, the thing must have been a humanoid of some sort). Curious as to what could've been carrying him, America dared to take a glance at the creature. However, he immediately regretted doing this. Sure, it seemed to have many traits to that of a human, but there was no denying that fact that this person was a demon; as he had both horns and bat-like wings.

At first, Alfred tried to squirm out of the demons arms. So what if he ended up falling and potentially breaking breaking a limb? At least he would have a chance to escape from whatever fate the demon had in store for him. However, the struggling seemed to be futile, as the demon tightened his arms around Alfred and scolded him, "Stop it, or you're going to end up falling into that fire pit."

 _Fire pit!?,_ Alfred exclaimed mentally. Well, it didn't seem as if the demon was lying, as when Alfred dared to take a look below them, he could see nothing but fire. Alfred immediately shut his eyes as tightly as possible after seeing this. Then, some invasive thoughts decided to attack his mind right at that moment. Although, one could easily consider them logical, considering the position Alfred was in at that moment, _What if I end up falling into the fire pit anyways? What's stopping this demon from just throwing me in?_

Alfred tried his best to keep himself together. Considering how things had been going for Alfred ever since he ended up in Hell however, it didn't seem as if even that was going to go well for him, as his breathing began to quicken. In fact, by the time the demon had finally brought him back down to the ground, he was hyperventilating.

As soon as he felt the demon land, Alfred opened his eyes so that he would be able to focus on escaping from this creature. Before the demon was even able to set him down, Alfred had squirmed out of his arms, and was met with a bunch of pain as he landed on the rock hard ground with his arm. Alfred tried to ignore the pain, as he began to back away as quickly as possible from the demon. Not that he was even able to make it far at all, considering the fact that he was still hyperventilating and felt extremely weak.

When the demon tried to bend over in order to wrap his arms around the frightened human, Alfred immediately kicked him in the gut. The demon stumbled back due to the pain, and Alfred spent the demon's moment of distraction to start attempting to flee with more haste; even going as far as to try and stand up on his legs. Of course, his limbs were too wobbly at the moment for him to stand up, but that didn't seem to matter anyways, as he realized that there were a few large boulders that were now almost surrounding him, and that any way out of this dead end was being blocked by the demon he had just kicked. What scared Alfred the most was the fact that the demon had much determination in his amethyst eyes.

It was then that Alfred became completely petrified with fear. That was it, the demon had him. Alfred was sure that he was in for it at that moment. After all, he'd kicked the demon, and surely a demon wouldn't forgive someone so easily for hurting them, right?

Once the demon was near the cowering human, he decided to kneel down so that he would be able to look Alfred in the eye. No anger was present on the demon's face, but Alfred was sure that he was just trying to hide it. When the demon tried to pull him into his arms once more, Alfred found that as much as he wanted to, he was unable to move out of the way of the demon. He felt himself being pulled close to the demon in what could easily be considered a tight, yet gental embrace. However, being held and having his hair stoked while words were muttered to him in a language he was unable to understand didn't seem to sooth Alfred at all. Instead, it only seemed to worsen the panic attack he was having.

Black spots were beginning to dance across Alfred's vision as he became more light headed. The demon only became more persistent in his attempt to comfort Alfred (although, Alfred certainly didn't think that the demon was trying to make him feel safe). Unfortunately, all of the demon's best efforts seemed to fail, as nothing he did could snap Alfred out of the panic attack. Soon enough, Alfred ended up blacking out.

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 **A/N: It's been a while since I've written a supernatural/fantasy (I think it would actually be considered supernatural, but I'm not quite sure). By a while, I mean a few years. I hope that wasn't too disappointing of a start.**


	2. Chapter 2

When Alfred awoke, the first thing he noticed was that he had a slight headache. This he didn't mind however, as he was much too exhausted to really care much for anything. Instead, he just wanted to resume to sleeping in the warm softness that almost seemed to surround him. Yet, there was something he couldn't quite recall at that moment that he thought would be important. After all, Alfred could almost immediately tell that something wasn't right. Therefore, he decided to open his eyes in an attempt to not only force himself to wake up, but to start investigating what was going on around him.

He was in a bedroom. He knew for sure that it couldn't have been his, as everything within it seemed to be neat and organized. Not that Alfred had a messy room himself; he just didn't really care for making sure that there wasn't a single object in his room that was out of place. He knew that this couldn't have been a friend's room either. After all, Alfred didn't really have any friends aside from his roommate. It wasn't that he was incapable of making any friends. Unfortunately, after that _one_ incident that had happened between him and his brother while he was still in high school, Alfred had suddenly become afraid of growing close to another person. This all stemmed from his sudden fear of causing something horrible to happen to any individual that became close to him. He'd even been reluctant to be friends with his roommate.

Then, Alfred began to remember the events of what had happened before he'd passed out. Everything from the dog with empty eye sockets to the demon carrying him over a giant pit of fire and then later cornering him (or at least, that was how Alfred saw it). At first, Alfred hoped that all of that was just some horrible nightmare, and that he once again, might have somehow forgotten what his bedroom looked like. Even if that wasn't a very realistic thing to hope for, as it wasn't very common at all for one to forget about how their bedroom looked, he still believed that if this 'nightmare' was somehow his reality, he would have already been experiencing some sort of horrible torture. Not lying down on some large, comfortable bed.

However, Alfred's remaining faith in the situation immediately faded, as he saw the demon he'd seen in his 'nightmare' suddenly open the door and enter the bedroom. Alfred frantically looked around, as he tried to figure out a way he could escape from the room. Much to his adversity, the demon almost immediately seemed to have him cornered, as he was almost standing right next to Alfred in a matter of seconds. Before the demon was able to say anything, Alfred promptly backed away from the intimidating (at least appearance wise) humanoid until his back was straight against the wall.

The first thing Alfred told himself was that there was no way any good could come from this situation. He was cornered in a bedroom, on a bed, with a demon that seemed a bit too interested in him at the moment. Sure, to anyone else, the demon wouldn't have necessarily been considered to have a hungry glare upon his face. Yet due to the confusion and fear Alfred had been experiencing ever since he ended up in Hell, that was the only feeling he could interpret from the demon. Especially due to where he was at that moment. Besides, he'd always been told that demons practically represent every horrible characteristic a human could possibly posses. Sure, there was a possibility that none of that was true, yet Alfred believed that in order to avoid being in even more shock, it would be best to go along with such a pessimistic view rather than an optimistic one. Besides, what did he know about the afterlife?

A frown made it's way upon the demon's face as he witnessed the humans sudden reaction towards his appearance. Deciding that he didn't want the human to continue to be afraid of him, he crawled onto the bed so that he could be closer to the human. Then, he reached out an arm so that he would be able to gently run his fingers through Alfred's blonde hair. However, as soon as his hand came close to Alfred's head, the human immediately shut his eyes tightly and cringed, as if he was expecting to be hit. Therefore, the demon decided to start speaking to the human with the most soothing voice he could muster, "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

Alfred didn't respond to this reassurance. Yet, despite the lack of reaction, the demon decided to touch the human's hair; and the only thing he achieved from doing so was a loud whimper. Eventually, after a while of having his hair stroked, Alfred dared to open his eyes. Tears began to develop within his azure orbs as he quietly begged, "Please, stop touching me."

The demon complied; figuring that it would probably be best to listen to the human and respect his personal space if he wanted him to feel safe. However, it didn't seem as if obeying the human's request helped, as Alfred was beginning to gain some worrying thoughts as to what the demon might do to him. Thoughts such as, _He's probably going to gouge both of my eyes out and make me eat them._ or, _Maybe he'll even cut me open and relocate my organs!_ Alfred nearly sobbed at the last thought. However, in his attempt to keep the sobs from pouring out of his mouth, he was still unable to keep a few tears from escaping his eyes and sliding down his cheeks. Eventually, after a while of trying to keep most of the crying in, a few nearly mute sobs began to shake his body.

The sight of Alfred crying only gave the demon the urge to start holding the human. To him, it seemed as if leaving the human be only intensified his fear. Sure, the demon was aware of the fact that because of what he was, his presence was definitely not helping, but what could he really do about that? Alfred was going to be living a completely different life from the one he once knew, and he was eventually going to have to accustom to the fact that he was going to be around demons. It wasn't as if demons were the worst creatures he was going to come across either. Sure, some demons absolutely hated humans, and a few of those demons would even go as far as to ignore the law set in place to protect humans and harm them anyways. As horrible as that was, those demons were nothing compared to what some extremely powerful beasts were capable of. Fortunately, such beasts would keep to themselves, and only attacked if someone trespassed on what they considered their territory. Still, even if a pack of hungry hell hounds couldn't even hope to compare to those powerful beasts, it would still probably be best for Alfred to have a demon protect him. Even if a demon was unable to handle a pack of hell hounds, at least one would be able to fly Alfred away from those vile creatures.

Despite the fact that something was telling the demon that it wouldn't be wise to start holding the human, he decided to ignore this gut feeling, as he was no longer able to resist the urge to comfort him. Therefore, he wrapped his arms around Alfred's form. Unfortunately, this caused an immediate reaction from Alfred, as he screeched, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH ME!"

Before Ivan could react, a fist flew at his cheek; causing pain to flood through what seemed to be half of his face. After a few seconds though, the pain dulled, and decided to only be present within the area he was hit. While the demon placed both of his hands on the now abused area of his face, he couldn't help but tremble with anger towards the aggression being shown towards him. However, the sudden bout of rage immediately subsided. Only to be replaced with that of sympathy towards the human when Alfred gave him a look full of undeniable guilt. Then, new tears glistened in his eyes as he said in a voice that was nearly inaudible, "I'm sorry."

After saying this, the human hid his face into his legs, and covered up his head with his arms, as if he was preparing for a full on beating. Due to this reaction, the demon couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for ever being angry with the human. The human was only scared and confused. He was only trying to protect himself. It wasn't as if his goal at the moment was to hurt the demon.

Since all of his other attempts failed, the demon decided that it would probably be best to show how harmless he truly was by silently sitting next to the human. Perhaps if he just sat there in the humans presence, and tried to show no interest in him, the human would eventually realize that he could trust the demon. Maybe even doing something as innocent as reading a book while sitting next to the human would help. Therefore, the demon decided to pick up a book that he'd left on the nightstand, and began to read.

By the time he'd finished reading a few pages, he heard the bedroom door creak open. The demon decided to look over to see what was opening the door wider from it's previous, ajar state, only to find his dog, a golden retriever with empty eye sockets, nudging it open with it's nose. Of course, no one knew whether or not a dog with empty eye sockets in Hell would be able to see, as most impairments that creatures had when they ended up here seemed to fade away. Dogs, for whatever reason, just happened to have some horrifying physical trait to them when they died and moved on to their after life, or so the humans always said so. Many dogs in this world ended up having no eyes. Whether or not that made them blind in a world that obviously seemed to have some magic in it didn't seem to matter at all, as it was a fact known by some that a dog's sense of hearing and smell could easily replace that of sight.

As soon as the dog lifted up it's head in order to sniff the air, it immediately began to wag it's tail, as if it recognized Alfred. Of course, the demon just put this off as the pooch being it's friendly self. It was certainly no surprise to him that the dog was so excited that it decided to jump onto the bed in order to greet Alfred. of course, the human was not at all thrilled to see the dog, as when he lifted up his head in order to make eye contact with those empty eye sockets, he immediately screamed. Then, he shoved the dog so hard that the poor pooch almost stumbled off of the bed, and exclaimed, "Stay away from me!"

The demon nearly gasped when he saw the human do this. It was definitely not a good sign that the human was frightened to the point where he would shove, and possibly harm an innocent dog. Even if that softhearted puppy did happen to have empty eye sockets. As tempted as the demon was to restrain the human that seemed to have no control over his unpredictable, violent acts, he decided not to risk having the human hyperventilate until he passed out again, and instead began to gently tug on the dogs collar so that any harm done to it from the human could be prevented. However, despite the demon's efforts to hold the dog back (he didn't want to pull too hard on it's collar), seemed to fail. Even when he resorted to holding the dog by the part of it's chest right behind it's front legs, the dog still slowly managed to approach Alfred until it was finally able to slip from the demon's arms. The demon watched in horror as the human began to lash out when the dog approached him.

Fortunately, the dog had immediately managed to find a way to pin the humans legs and arms down with it's paws, so that it would be able to lick his cheeks. However, the demon didn't let his guard down, as the human was still crying out in protest. Eventually though, the demon was able to relax, and just let the dog do as it pleased. After all, the dog's affection had quickly quieted the human's protest, a sign that he was finally calming down a bit. Once all of the tears had been licked off of the human's cheeks, the dog freed Alfred's arms, and began to nuzzle one of his hands in hopes of receiving a decent scratch behind it's ears. The human complied to the silent, yet hopeful request, and the dog ended up tilting it's head into the human's hand.

Meanwhile, Alfred felt a warmth grow in his stomach while he stroked the dog. He couldn't help but find the way that the dog acted and how it looked to be quite familiar. He'd once had a golden retriever with dark blonde fur such as this one. He missed her quite a bit too. Alfred hated watching as the diabetes made his dog less and less perky. He hated how the dog had eventually gone blind. Most of all, he hated how the dog had eventually obtained horrible hips, and soon had to be euthanized due to the pain she was in. Alfred remembered bawling his eyes out for days after his best friend was killed, but at least that friend was no longer suffering. One thing was for sure though; it was unfair how short a dog's life was.

Alfred examined the dog's ears, in order to search for the small tear that his dog had on her left ear, and sure enough, it was there. Then, in order to clarify if this really was his dog, he decided to ask, "Goldie, is that you?"

The dog's tail went wild at the mention of this name; giving Alfred a clear message that this was, in fact, his dog. An overwhelming wave of bittersweet euphoria prevented Alfred from questioning, or even caring about the fact that a sweet creature such as Goldie ended up in Hell, and instead pulled the dog into a tight embrace as she resumed to licking his face. Her tail still wagged quite vigorously while Alfred told her, "Hey, I missed you girl."

After the demon let Alfred and Goldie have their moment, he finally decided to speak up, "I guess I'm going to have to start calling her Goldie, then."

Alfred flinched when he heard the demon's voice. He'd completely forgot that he was still in the same room as the demon. Now trembling, Alfred decided to respond in a way that he hoped wouldn't anger the demon, "If you want."

The demon seemed to ignore the human's sudden bout of fear as he asked, "By the way, what's your name?"

"A-Alfred."

"Do you mind if I just call you Fredka?"

Alfred shook his head no, in the fear of what the demon might do if he even hinted out the possibility that he might not be okay with the name. The demon gave Alfred a warm smile, and then said, "I'm Vanya, but Ivan might be easier for you to remember. Seeing as English seems to be your primary language, da?"

Alfred couldn't help but be a bit stumped by the question. What in the world was da supposed to mean? To him, it just sounded as if Ivan had made a stupid noise once he was finished speaking. Usually, he would have laughed if someone did that, yet Alfred was of course, still afraid of the demon, and instead decided to ask in a respectful manner, "Uh, what's 'da' supposed to mean?"

"It means 'yes' in Russian."

At this response, Alfred felt his face heat up with embarrassment as he thought, _I should have been able to guess that._ Then, when he decided to reply, he still refused to give the demon any eye contact as he answered the previous question, "English is the only language I can speak."

There was a moment of silence, before Ivan finally stated, "You are probably very hungry right now. Why don't you come with me to the kitchen? I can make you something to eat."

At the mention of food, Alfred began to realize just how hungry he really was. However, Alfred decided to ignore his stomach's constant begging, as he told the demon, "No thanks, I'm not really hungry right now."

"Fredka, you don't need to feel nervous. You are going to have to eat _something_ eventually."

Despite the fact that his traitor stomach was aching with hunger, in an attempt to make him accept the food offer, Alfred still declined, "Really, I don't think I can stomach anything right now."

Of course, the demon was able to see right through the lie. However, he decided not to acknowledge it, and instead continued on with his persuasion, "Maybe you just don't know that your hungry right now. Come to the kitchen anyways. I can give you something small. Maybe that will help you gain your appetite."

Alfred complied, as it didn't seem as if the demon was going to let him not eat. However, when he began to walk out of the bedroom with Ivan, he felt a sudden dizzy spell hit him. Alfred tried to use the wall for support. Yet, nothing he did to try and regain his balanced seemed to work, as soon enough, he was sitting on the floor. Ivan seemed to have noticed that there was something wrong with the human, as he asked, "Fredka, are you okay?"

"Yes," Alfred answered, as he tried his best to stand up once more; only to end up on the floor again as his legs seemed to be too weak to support his own weight. Ivan gave him a look of sympathy as he stated, "You must still be feeling weak from entering this world. That's okay. I can just carry you."

A jolt of fear spread through Alfred as Ivan leaned down so that he would be able to lift him up. Before the demon could even lift him up into his arms, Alfred immediately backed away from him. The demon frowned at this and tried to reassure him, "Nyet, don't be scared. I'm not going to do anything to hurt you."

Alfred immediately stopped moving after hearing this. What would've been the point of trying to escape anyways? He was too weak to do anything but comply to what the demon wanted him to do. Besides, how many time would he be able to get away with hitting the demon? Taking the human's lack of movement as a sign that it was okay for him to pull him into his arms, Ivan decided to place one arm on the backs Alfred's knees, so that his legs could be supported. Then he wrapped the other arm around the upper part of Alfred's torso before telling the human, "Wrap your arms around the base of my neck, so that you'll be easier to carry."

Once again, Alfred did as he was told. Then, Ivan stood up so that he could begin to carry Alfred into the kitchen. Once they were half way there, Ivan asked Alfred, "This isn't so bad, is it?"

Alfred couldn't help but shake his head no in order to express his agreement. In all honesty, he sort of did feel a bit more relaxed while he was being carried. Since when was the last time someone was willing to carry him? He was so used to having to walk everywhere or ride in a vehicle that he forgot the bliss of being carried by another human (or a human-like creature, in this case). Especially if that certain someone may have been stronger than him. He enjoyed the feeling of being able to rest his head on the demon's warm shoulder. Alfred was sure that as long as the demon wasn't carrying him across a giant fire pit, as he had last time, he would always feel safe in this position.

By the time Ivan had made it to the kitchen, Alfred couldn't help but be disappointed when the demon decided to set him down in a chair at the table. However, when Ivan presented him with an apple, he couldn't help but feel a bit gleeful. Since being carried by the demon seemed to make him forget about his fear, and since his hunger was becoming unbearable, he greedily grabbed the apple from the demon's hand, and began to take large bites from it. Ivan didn't seem to mind the greedy behavior, though. At least the human wasn't rejecting the food. Since Alfred seemed to be quite happy with eating his apple, Ivan couldn't help but let a smile grow on his face as he retrieved some matches one of the kitchen drawers. Then, as he was about to light one of the matches so that he could light the scented candle on his table, Alfred caught sight of the match and cried out, "Don't!"

Ivan flinched, and whipped his head towards Alfred, only to find that the human was now trembling and staring at him fearfully. Frowning at the sight, Ivan decided to ask, "What's wrong?"

"P-please don't light that match."

 _He must be afraid of fire,_ Ivan mused, as he placed the match back into the box it came from, _Something horrible must have happened to him. Usually people aren't so afraid of fire that they freak out over someone lighting a candle._ By the time Ivan had placed the matches back in the drawer they came from, he turned to find that Alfred was still staring fearfully at him. Ivan sighed at this, and decided to walk over to Alfred so that he could pull him into a hug. Then, he told him in a voice that was almost a whisper, "It's okay. I put the matches away so they can't hurt you. I promise that this place isn't going to catch on fire."

Ivan held Alfred until his trembling finally died down. Then, he looked down at the apple in his hands to find that the only thing that remained of it was a core. Ivan figured that the human must have been really hungry, as he hadn't seen him take a bite out of the apple after he'd spotted the match. Therefore, that left him with a very short amount of time to eat the apple. Ivan pinched the apple's stem with two finger's, and then told Alfred, "I'll take care of this for you."

Then, once the apple core was taken care of, Ivan asked, "Are you still hungry."

Before the match incident, after he'd finished his apple, Alfred had still been quite hungry. However, after being frightened, that hunger had immediately subsided. Now the apple, to him, seemed to be plenty. This time, when Alfred declined the demon's offer for more food, Ivan noticed that it was an honest answer, "No."

After giving Alfred a glass of water, as the human seemed to be a bit dehydrated as well, Ivan decided to lift Alfred up after he drank his fill. Then, he placed the human down on the couch as he stated, "You should probably rest here and do something that won't take up too much of your energy."

Alfred didn't really do much that day aside from eating and drinking. He was still too busy trying to accustom to the fact that he was in a completely different world. Not only that, but depressing thoughts also seemed to want to haunt his mind. Eventually, by the time the clock read six thirty, a huge wave of exhaustion struck Alfred. Ivan seemed to have taken notice of this, and lifted Alfred up off of the couch while saying, "I guess you should get some sleep now. You had a rough morning, and it seemed to have tired you out during the rest of the day."

Once more, Alfred rested his head against the demons shoulder as he was carried into the bedroom. Then, by the time they were in the said room, Ivan laid Alfred down on the bed and pulled a thick blanket over his form. Soon after Alfred was tucked in, Goldie decided to walk into the bedroom so that she could jump onto the bed and snuggle with Alfred. before turning the light off, Ivan said, "Good night, Fredka."

As soon as the door was shut, Alfred turned so that he could cuddle with his dog. It seemed as if the moment he closed his eyes, he was already in a deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Alfred awoke with a start. A thin, cold layer of sweat covered up his shivering form while his gaze remained unfocused in the dark room. It wasn't the dark room that Alfred's mind seemed to think he was in at that moment. Instead, it was focused on the dream he'd just had. A reoccurring dream that almost always wanted to haunt his mind. A memory that he wished could just leave his mind permanently, but of course, forgetting about what had happen would not make him any less guilty for the death of his brother.

At first, Alfred was in shock after he had abruptly awoken. The events that had taken place within the dream had been so vivid. It was almost as if everything that happened in his nightmare had just happened in real life right at that moment. After a moment of realizing where he was however, Alfred eventually realized that what he thought was his reality right at that moment was only a nightmare. Well, perhaps a memory would be a more accurate way to describe it. Just some horrible memory that continued to haunt his sleep in a reoccurring dream. Sometimes, Alfred wished that there was a way that he would never have to sleep again, or better yet, never dream again. He hated seeing himself accidentally kill his brother over and over again.

Tears began to develop within his eyes as he sat up; only to curl up into a ball against the wall so that something could support his trembling form. He tried his best to keep the sobs threatening to pour from his mouth stifled, yet as time passed by, he eventually became a loud, bawling mess. Goldie seemed to have noticed that something was wrong with her owner, as she immediately stood up from where she once laid, and tried to nudge Alfred's arm out of the way so that she could start licking his face.

It wasn't long before Alfred's loud sobs attracted the attention of the demon, as soon, he heard a knock on the door, and Ivan's voice asking, "Fredka, are you okay?"

There was no answer, aside from the non-stop sobbing. Sighing, Ivan decided to enter the room as he mused, _He probably just had some horrible nightmare._ Since that was the most probable conclusion he could draw from the situation, Ivan decided that comforting Alfred would probably be the best thing to do at that moment. It didn't seem as if with how upset Alfred was that he would be able to speak.

Unfortunately for Alfred, some invasive thoughts decided to encourage his fear at that moment. What if the demon was somehow able to read his mind? What if the demon somehow found out that he had accidentally killed his brother, started hating him after making that discovery, and decided to hurt him? Sure, the demon had been caring towards him, and didn't really show any signs of having an exaggerated amount of power over him, as he was able to cause the demon some pain, but he'd only really experienced about a solid ten hours with the demon. It wasn't as if he knew the world he was in too well. Therefore, with this new found fear in mind, Alfred decided to scoot away from the demon when he approached him.

The demon frowned at this reaction, and stopped walking towards the human for a moment. _I thought he was over his fear of me,_ he thought with confusion as he felt hurt begin to gnaw at his heart, _Why is he suddenly afraid of me?_

Ignoring the sudden emptiness growing within his chest, Ivan decided to proceed to approach the human. This caused the human to stop trying to move away from the demon, as Alfred realized, once more, that there was no way he was going to escape the demon. Therefore, he instead decided to plead, in the hopes that the demon would show him some mercy, "Please don't hurt me! It was an accident! I didn't mean to kill him..."

The demon's eyes widened at the last statement. Then, once he'd regained enough of his composure to think, he wondered, _What happened to him? His previous life keeps sounding more messed up the more he speaks..._

Since there wasn't enough light coming from the hallway for Ivan to be able to see Alfred's face, he decided to turn on the light so that he could study the human, and perhaps show him that he had no intention to hurt him by revealing his passive expression. However, that didn't seem to reassure the human much, as when the demon decided to sit down on the bed next to him, the human whimpered, "I'm serious! I didn't know that what we were doing was dangerous until it was too late!"

At that moment, Ivan couldn't help but appreciate the fact that the dog was now trying to find a comfortable place on the bed, instead of trying to comfort Alfred. Sure, Goldie was a sweetheart, and didn't seem to have a problem making the human feel safe before, but now it seemed as if the human would need words. After all, the dog's affection wasn't going to explain everything. It would be best if the dog decided to stay out of the way as the demon tried to reason with Alfred, and he appreciated the fact that the dog became discouraged when, in the dark, it looked as if she was trying to receive his attention and Alfred had completely ignored her.

When Ivan decided to pull Alfred into a tight, comforting embrace, he couldn't help but feel relieved when the human didn't try to squirm out of his arms and possibly hit him. Although, he couldn't help but feel a bit dispirited when it didn't seem as if the human's sobs and tremor were going to stop any time soon. Therefore, Ivan decided to tell him in the most soothing voice he could manage, "Shh, everything's going to be okay. I promise."

Alfred tried his best to argue through the sobs, "It's not going to be okay! It's never going to be okay!"

"Fredka, look at me." At first, Alfred refused to comply. Even when Ivan gently tilted his head with his hand, Alfred still refused to make eye contact with the demon. Since the human was being stubborn, Ivan decided to add, "That means I want to see your eyes."

After a moment a hesitation, Alfred finally made eye contact with Ivan. Even in the dark lighting of the yellow lamp light, Alfred's eyes seemed to almost glow due to the slight pinkish tint that formed in the white part of his eyes from all of the crying he'd done, and still was doing. Not only did his eyes seem to become somewhat lighter (as if they weren't already light), they seems to have obtained a bit of a grayish hue. The tears that continued to slide down his cheeks, and the regret and dread that radiated from his expression only seemed to enhance how dismal, yet beautiful the sight of Alfred's eyes were at that moment. Even if Ivan did feel a bit envious at the sight, he couldn't help but feel even more sympathy for the human as he examined the overwhelming sorrow that seemed to scream from those beautiful orbs. After a moment of being distracted by Alfred's eyes, Ivan returned his focus to the problem at hand, and began, "If it was my goal to hurt you for all of eternity, what would be the point in taking the time to even try to make you feel comfortable around me?"

Alfred opened his mouth, as if he was about to give out a reason as to why Ivan would want to do it that way. However, he was immediately interrupted, as Ivan decided to answer his own question, "There wouldn't be any point. Demons are very powerful, and I just happen to be stronger than most demons. I'm not saying that you're weak. For a human your size, it's shocking how strong you are. But I'm stronger, and I can easily take advantage of you. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's the truth. All I'm trying to say is that even if I am capable of doing so, I'm never going to hurt you. Don't you remember those times you hit me? I never hit you back. I tried to understand things through your perspective."

For a moment, Alfred thought about what Ivan told him before asking, "But why wouldn't you hate me, and why would you even care for my well being?"

"Fredka, I hardly even know you. Why would you expect me to already hate you? Besides, I have a couple of reasons as to why I'm caring for you. For one, you have just entered this world. You're going to need someone to help you get used to this change. Secondly, I'm sort of hoping that you'll want to... stay... with me."

Alfred watched as the demon turned his head away from him; a sign that he was becoming shy. Alfred could tell that Ivan wasn't blushing in a way that signified that he was in love. That would've certainly scared him away from the demon. Instead, it looked as if the demon was embarrassed by what he'd just said. Alfred had to admit; it was sort of strange for someone to wish for another person they hardly even knew to live with them. Then again, the demon sort of did seem to show signs that he was extremely lonely. It wasn't the first time he started acting shy around the human, and sometimes, Ivan would even become quite talkative around him. Even if Alfred didn't respond to anything he said. Then, there were those times when Ivan would hug Alfred for no reason; as if he was touch-starved. Those times would always cause Alfred to flinch, and later become a bit uncomfortable, as those hugs were always completely unexpected.

However, it didn't seem as if Ivan's shyness was his main concern at the moment, as Alfred stated, "Well, I doubt that you're going to like me for long. Besides, you're probably really annoyed with how I've been acting ever since you met me, and obviously I ended up here because I'm a horrible person."

Fresh tears prickled in Alfred's eyes, and the fact that his voice wavered immediately snapped Ivan out of his bout of shyness as he explained, "If you think that you ended up here after you died because 'you are a horrible person', I'm just going to let you know that that's not true. Everyone goes here when they die."

"Don't lie to me, I'm here because I killed someone! Maybe you're not going to punish me for it, but I know it's going to come back to get me eventually."

"Nyet, Fredka," Ivan pulled Alfred into yet another tight embrace as he told him, "You're not a horrible person. You even said that it was an accident earlier, didn't you?"

Alfred nodded his head as he hid his face into his arms, and after receiving this response, Ivan continued, "I realize that this must have been a hard lesson for you to learn, and I understand that you feel horrible about it, but please realize that you're not a horrible person because of this. Sometimes good people make huge mistakes like that, and it's not fair, but please don't let this eat away at you. You don't deserve to be miserable."

Instead of responding, Alfred only continued to sob as he thought, _He doesn't understand!_ Meanwhile, Ivan began to stroke Alfred's hair in an attempt to sooth him. As he watched Alfred's form shake with sobs, Ivan mused, _This human's so young, yet it seems as if he's been through a lot._

After what seemed to be half of an hour of non-stop crying, Alfred eventually became too exhausted to continue being miserable. As soon as he was leaning against the demon, Ivan decided to lay him down and tuck him in. However, before the demon was able to stand up from the bed and leave, he felt the human hug his arm. At first, Ivan was shocked, but eventually, he couldn't help but smile as he stated, "Alright, if you don't want to sleep alone, I can stay."

After Ivan was under the covers with Alfred, the human immediately snuggled up to the demon as closely as he possible could. A warmth began to grow within Ivan's chest due to the sudden affection. After he'd reached over in order to turn off the lamp, Ivan wrapped one arm around the human as he listened to him fall asleep. Then, before Ivan began his attempt to drift off to sleep, he thought, _I hope that I can eventually make Fredka feel at least a little better about himself._


End file.
